On protest | A proposito di protesta

The path of fascism is littered with victims | Il cammino del fascismo è disseminato di vittime

[VERSIONE ITALIANA PIÙ SOTTO]

In today’s world, we all too readily acquiesce in acts and statements that, fifty years ago, would have been denounced outright as outrageous.

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I was on holiday last week, staying with an old acquaintance from years ago, in Italy. She was telling me of her student days of protest in the 1970s and 80s, in Italy’s red north cities of Modena and Bologna: la guerra civile tra comunisti e fascisti.

The city of Brescia, which is one of Italy’s best-kept secrets—forget Verona and Venice, is paved, all the way from the central square and its post office, which Mussolini built in what we call the fascist style, right up to the citadel towering above the town, with stones inlaid with the names of the victims of Italy’s fascist terrorism outrages in the 1960s and 70s (on which Mrs Meloni, il serenissimo presidente della repubblica (she doesn’t like the feminine form, interestingly) has made some disturbing remarks).

I think that now it’s worse.